India has beaten Australia in the first Test as the visiting batsmen, with the exception of a stubborn Moises Henriques, were unable to cope with a spin attack led by Ravichandran Ashwin on a crumbling Chennai pitch.

It was a convincing victory, inspired by a game-changing innings from captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, and India will take great confidence into the next match in Hyderabad this weekend.

If it hadn’t been for Henriques, India would have had this opening match of the series wrapped up within four days. The 26-year-old debutant, who was born in the cricket wilderness of Portugal, was Australia’s last man standing Tuesday, on 81 not out.

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His efforts ensured India would have to bat again, but with a target of 50 runs there was never any doubt about which team would emerge victorious. Murali Vijay threw away his wicket and Virender Sehwag was also dismissed, but Cheteshwar Pujara and Sachin Tendulkar – who hit two sixes off his first two deliveries – guided India to an eight-wicket victory.

By the end of the match, the dusty red wicket at M.A. Chidambaram Stadium resembled the craggy surface of Mars. Australia’s captain Michael Clarke said the pitch wasn’t as bad as it looked, but it certainly appeared to be alien territory for his team when the batting lineup collapsed Monday.

Once again, a touring side has been bamboozled in the Subcontinent by Indian spin, despite having just received a batting master-class by a local boy. This time, the lesson came from Dhoni, whose career-best innings of 224 runs came to an end Monday morning.

The Indian captain unleashed a volley of ferocious shots in an innings that included six sixes and 24 fours. It was the highest score ever made by an Indian captain, and the most spectacular of the six centuries he has achieved in his Test career. His disappointing form during the England tour of November and December is already a distant memory.

Dhoni, a familiar face in Chennai as captain of the local Indian Premier League franchise, at times batted as if he was involved in a Twenty20 thrash-about rather than a Test match. His Chennai Super Kings teammate Ravichandran Ashwin also had a match to remember with a monstrous 12 wicket haul.

After taking seven wickets for 103 runs in the first innings, Ashwin again dominated in the Chennai sunshine Monday, ending the day with five for 90.

Harbhajan Singh, in his hundredth Test, joined the wicket-taking party Monday, taking two for 55, while Ravindra Jadeja, the other prong of India’s spin triumvirate, took two for 68 as Australia’s batting lineup folded. Jadeja finished off the innings with Lyon’s wicket Tuesday morning.

The Australian batsmen, with the exception of Henriques and Clarke, who scored 130 and 31, looked uncomfortable throughout Monday as India’s spinners peppered the dusty surface with deliveries that were just as likely to leap high as stay low.

The contrast with Sunday was stark, and not just with Dhoni. Virat Kohli, Tendulkar and even Bhuvneshwar Kumar at number 10 batted brilliantly, with Kohli scoring the fourth century of his Test career before carelessly hitting a catch to Mitchell Starc off the bowling of Lyon.

Tendulkar came close to adding to his 100 international centuries, but was undone on 81, again by Lyon, Australia’s lone spinner.

While India’s spinners shared all of the wickets, Australia’s biggest threat was the pace of James Pattinson, who took five for 96 runs in India’s first innings. With only Lyon to rely upon, Australia looked far too short on the spin front, and his three wickets in the first innings came at a very heavy price of 215 runs.

In contrast, Ashwin ended the match with 12 wickets for 198 runs.

Figures like that would typically secure the man-of-the-match award, but not this time. That honor rightly went to Dhoni, whose innings put India in a winning position.

This is still likely to be a tightly contested four-match series between the world’s number three (Australia) and four (India) ranked Test teams. India will remember that a convincing win against England in the first Test of that tour in November didn’t lead to a series triumph.

But Australia’s Clarke, without the experienced old heads of the now-retired Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey, will have a tough job rallying his troops for the next match in Hyderabad.

His Indian counterpart Dhoni can afford to take a more relaxed approach, though that has always been his way.

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